


Necessary luxury

by Leximuth



Series: Short Stories [10]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 14:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3329261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leximuth/pseuds/Leximuth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There really isn't much that the Autobots ask of Earth. Rubber duckies are probably not one of those things, but a bath? A bath just might be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Necessary luxury

They’d asked the Autobots what they needed, done their best to meet those needs, and sketched out plans for developing the technologies necessary to assist them in the future. Lennox had never really considered that they might have taken that too literally - in his military, it was better to ask too much and chance having some of it granted. But the Autobots had taken them at their word and asked only for the most basic necessities.

Sideswipe had been the first to ask for anything more. Cleaning supplies, he said. A damn huge oil bath, the paperwork said. A huge expense, the military said.

“It would help with morale,” Optimus said. “But more importantly, it would ease Ratchet’s duties. Earth is a beautiful planet but it is unkind to metal.”

Lennox bit his tongue. They’d asked for so little - a hangar to share between the lot of them as well as human operations, a bit of backup and cooperation to prevent civilian casualties in their war... and not much else.

He got the oil bath.

It had the unexpected side effect of being _completely hilarious._ Arcee’s loosely plated bodies had no problems, but the first time Ironhide settled in... Well. It made logical sense that their bodies would trap air. Logic had nothing to do with the sudden outbreak of fart jokes, though. Sideswipe didn’t much care for those, but he got his own soon enough - he had no breath to hold, after all, and once he’d cycled his vents a few times to pull the oil through, he could do a very intimidating loom out of nowhere, dark golden oil pouring off him in erratic pulses as it cycled through his cooling systems. It helped that the oil honestly did keep them all in their best fighting shape - it was hard to keep up the teasing when their sparring had to be viewed in slow motion.

It wasn’t until Optimus himself took to the bath that Lennox realized just how badly it had been needed, though. Ironhide and Ratchet were both on hand to fuss at him, hiding it by snarking at each other just as much as at their leader, but all the other Autobots made their way through as well. Completely by coincidence, of course. Just happened to be passing through, not checking up on their Prime at all. They certainly weren’t interested in seeing Ironhide dunk Optimus under by hauling on his feet.

“He can never clean them right himself,” Ironhide protested.

“You’re incorrigible,” Ratchet grumbled.

Optimus said something too, but the bubbles drowned him out.


End file.
